J Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson

Honest question: If Hoover was such a raging homophobe, how did he manage to pull off his very open relationship with Tolson? Was he ever accused of hypocrisy? Wasn't he afraid of exposure? Seems that someone like Hoover would just marry some ditzy power-hungry woman for appearances. Why was he so open?

Enemies were taken care of....

It was a different time ...

He had true power. He knew where the bodies were buried and who buried them. No one dared do anything against him.

[quote] If Hoover was such a raging homophobe, how did he manage to pull off his very open relationship with Tolson?
It's a way of putting the focus on others while giving the impression that you would never go there.
George Rekers, Bishop Eddie Long, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard -- all examples of gay men raging at gays. George Rekers, caught returning from Europe with a rentboi, testified for major legislation against adoption by gays.
At DL, the jackasses who scream "pedo" at every mention of anyone under 25, are just another example of the homophobia promoted by Hoover, Rekers, Long, Haggard, Craig, and their ilk.

My impression is that EVERYONE was afraid of Hoover. Any President could have replaced him, none ever had the balls to do it.
So the answer to the question is another question: Where does a 900 lb gorilla sit?

In those days, you really needed evidence to mention someone being a homosexual. Liberace won a libel suit against a magazine which simply hinted that he might be homosexual. Also, being a contented single person was considered a very legitimate and honorable way of life in those days. It was not so necessary to have a beard to stay in the closet. Everybody knew that a large percentage of bachelors were of homosexual nature, but most people had a "live and let live" attitude, as long as they were very discreet.

Maybe so, R6, but it wasn't respect for Hoover, it was fear.

[quote]Liberace won a libel suit against a magazine which simply hinted that he might be homosexual.
That was a court case in England, not the U.S., where he could not have won a similar suit due to a different in laws.

Hoover was protected by THE MOB. They paid his gambling debts and protected everything else. Hoover, in turn, was very soft on the mob.
THREAD CLOSED

JEH was in the mob's pocket, everyone else was in his pocket. It worked out well for all of them. No need for a beard.
I imagine JEH's misogyny was so hard-core that even the most basic pretence would have been a non-starter.
'Arrangements' would have been complicated, and he wasn't even a movie star. He was too powerful to bother or pretend.

He didn't travel. His power came from the military, not the mob.

As others have noted, OP, the man had immense power and myriad connections from government and law enforcement to mobsters and tycoons.
And it was a different time in terms of libel laws and homosexuality. Calling someone homosexual was akin to calling them a mentally ill sexual predator with criminal tendencies and a danger to children. Anyone with the power to reveal the truth, such as a newspaper editor or an aspiring whistleblower, would know to not even attempt such a thing.

r9 -- what about the photo the mob had of JEH in drag?
G-man Number 1 hoisted by his own petard!

R11, you must be very young, because anyone who read news magazines of that era was aware that Hoover traveled often, and Tolson was always his companion. I don't believe the stories about Hoover being a cross dresser. He was never that blatant. He and Tolson never even lived in the same house or stayed in the same hotel room. I don't even know for sure that their attachment to each other was overt and ever "dared to speak its name".

Hoover was a bully and to this day you don't mess with a bully. You wait until he brings himself down THEN it's payback time.

R9 is right. The mob was blackmailing Hoover and during his reign the mafia was able to expand its operations all over the nation. When RFK, who detested Hoover, started going after the mob, he signed his own death certificate.